Friday, September 21, 2012

Added Value?

Welcome back, shoe people, we hope you have had a great week. We certainly have - Wednesday saw the launch of an exhibition by the Crafts Council called Added Value? which explores what commissioning bespoke work gives you beyond the monetary value of the product. Things like experience; knowledge of materials; a personal relationship with the maker; input into the product; supporting the local economy; exclusivity etc.

They chose six bespoke companies producing very different products, including carreducker.

The following Link will take you to some short films about each company. Luckily ours is first and we are really proud of it - hope you like it.

The exhibition was part of designjunction which, in turn was part of London Design Week. It is on at The Sorting Office, 21-23 New Oxford St which is an old Post Office building in the heart of London and has a lot of the old sorting machinery in place where the letters and parcels were shunted around. It's a massive space, spread over three floors and just right for a show like designjunction.

The afternoon was the Press View and we met various journalists and curators from around the world. There is talk of the show going to Hong Kong and Dubai - hello! And then there was a private view in the evening. Numbers were huge and there were queues down the block to get in. So a lot of people saw us which is fantastic.

Love the old chutes which go from floor to floor. Do you think the workers were ever tempted to go down one?

Here is the Added Value? exhibition. Each company had a stand with one piece of work on display and then another stand with a video, images and description. We thought it was very well presented and reflected the quality of the work on show .

Our Shoes

We really liked the brass lettering for the company name.

Another feature was customer recommendations which really gave a sense of what bespoke adds to the customer experience.

Entry to the show is free, but you need to register on the following link to get in.

If you are in London over the weekend it is a really interesting visit.

And that is our news for the week. Until next Friday, happy shoemaking!